Eye in the sky
by Valeriasg1
Summary: SGA x SG1 Crossover, Weir x O'Neill friendship  UST, set during the events of No Man's Land. Jack thinks that taking Elizabeth on a side trip to Washington might be a good idea to distract her from her thoughts of Atlantis.


Title: Eye in the sky  
Character/Pairing: Jack/Elizabeth UST (sue me)

Beta: My wonderful Ky  
Prompt Number: #29: Weak

"You okay?"

When he had commandeered Elizabeth from Richard Woolsey's oppressive control and harassing questions and not-so-figuratively dragged her to the airport, Jack hadn't paid much attention to her weak protests, and now that they were well high in the bright sky of Colorado he was starting to feel guilty for taking advantage of her in such a vulnerable moment.

She hadn't talked much since they had boarded the plane, and given how uncharacteristic that was for the doctor, he found that he didn't really need her to answer his query to know that she definitely wasn't okay.

She turned her head away from the window and towards him and nodded, her lips stretched in a strained smile. "I'm just a little tired from all the commotion, that's all."

Even as she spoke the words, she lowered her eyes to prevent him from reading the blatant lie in them.

He decided not to push her or pick on her use of a euphemism. After all, the purpose of his little stunt - take her to a party at the Russian embassy as his escort – was to distract her from the whirlwind that had been her life lately.

Washington had been her home for many years, diplomacy and related issues, boring parties included, her daily bread, and he'd figured it would help her keep mind off all she was going through.

Her job, her city, her people's lives were at stake and she didn't know whether she would ever see any of them again.

"I'm sorry if I've been a little insistent—" her gentle snort cut him off.

"A little?" She echoed. Despite the lingering resentment, in her voice it was the most genuine reaction he had provoked in her, and he thought that a step forward.

"Let me rephrase that. I'm sorry if I've…uh…kidnapped you…" he left the word hanging in the air for a few moments, until Elizabeth rewarded his lexical choice with a vaguely amused, if barely hinted, smile.

"That's much more accurate. Please General, continue."

"It's Jack, Elizabeth. I'm too much of a gentleman to leave you suffering at the hands of the IOA. And I really couldn't show up alone at this event."

If she had sensed the real reasons of his gesture she decided to avoid bringing them up, and commented with an enigmatic "I'm glad chivalry isn't dead. Jack." before she completely changed the subject.

"I believe you mentioned a detailed report of the negotiations that lead to the signing of the agreement." Both parties had finally reached an understanding and settled the divergences regarding the use of alien technology for military purposes, but Jack didn't know anything more than he needed to be satisfied with the outcome of the negotiations.

Namely, that they weren't obliged to share every weapon acquired through 'Gate travel with the Russians and that, with some luck, he'd have one less issue to worry about for a while.

"Are you really sure you want to read all of it? There's not even a picture in there." Jack questioned, looking at her even as he fished blindly for the large file in his briefcase.

She gave him a half-shrug, something she seemed to do a lot when she dismissed someone's concern or a thought of her own. "Well, I do have a few hours of plane trip to kill."

"This is business class for crying out loud, watch the movie," he gestured in the vague direction of the screen, "don't you have chess on that thing?" He nodded towards the PDA poking out the pocket of her jacket.

"As a matter of fact I have chess, checkers and several card games and I'll be happy to challenge you at each of them when I'm done with the report." She took the document from him and relaxed against the comfortable back of her seat. Jack watched her as, after a moment of hesitation, she skimmed over the first few pages to the first paragraph.

Elizabeth started reading, her eyes moving back and forth over the words, and he deeply suspected she wouldn't raise her gaze from the pages until she had read the whole thing.

His own eyes darted rather longingly to the PDA still resting in her pocket.

"Can I play solitaire?"

Elizabeth's exasperated eye-roll and the following sigh made him wonder just how many times John Sheppard had been the recipient of this particular gesture.

He too settled more comfortably in his seat and closed his eyes, fervently hoping that everything would turn out well for Elizabeth and the missing expedition members. Feeling the ghost of a familiar fear and helplessness that used to grip his stomach whenever he sent SG1 through the gate, during the year he spent as head of the SGC.

Elizabeth knew exactly where the little balcony off the main conference room was, and how to get there.

She had been in the Russian embassy many times during her work with the UN, back when the relationship between the two countries was still strained, and she could walk the marble floors of the building almost as confidently as she did the steel and glass corridors of Atlantis.

The pang of nostalgia that hit her when she stepped onto the white, smooth floor of the balcony took her breath away for a moment and left her with a lingering feeling of loss; as if the city, John, and everyone else were the memories of a past life she couldn't quite place, rather than a very recent past.

In the ballroom, as she grew re-accustomed to her old routine, she exchanged a few polite words with former colleagues and even shared a dance with Jack O'Neill, Atlantis had indeed felt a lifetime away, a shapeless figure nagging at the back of her mind.

That didn't last long, just until someone asked her – and everyone she knew, sooner or later, did, as she'd been away from the Washington scene for quite some time now – what kind of job she did now that managed to keep her away from the field.

Fresh pain and guilt washed over her at that and, after a few awkward explanations, she started giving the same answer to everyone, even if they had security clearance: 'I can't really talk about it, it's classified.'

"Was that Wachowski guy still harassing you?" What startled her wasn't the voice itself, coming unexpected from behind her, but the fact that it wasn't the one she was used to.

Everything was wrong here, from the black dress floating about her knees to the smell in the air.

She turned to him, more out of politeness than real interest. She didn't mind his presence, but she had actually been looking forward to some time for herself. "It's Bakowski, and he wasn't harassing me."

"Good." Jack nodded, stuffing both hands in the pockets of his dress blues. Elizabeth smiled inwardly, knowing he had probably had a hard time restraining himself from doing it in public.

He looked good in his General's uniform. Yet, it was obvious to her that he didn't belong to this world of custom-made suits and meaningless speeches, and she wondered idly if he felt like she did, a fish out of water.

"How did you find me?" She asked, curiosity mixed with just a tiny bit of annoyance at being interrupted in a private moment.

"I followed you," he said candidly, "I saw you sneaking out of the ballroom. Now, as I do that on a regular basis…"

"You've become good at spotting fugitives. I get it." She finished the sentence for him. Jack saw the quirking of her lips in the dim glow of the city lights and walked quietly to where she was standing, her elbows resting on the marble balustrade and her eyes up to the sky.

She was very aware of his presence beside her even as she forced herself to stay focused on the half moon and the few stars blinking in the night. It wasn't an entirely unpleasant feeling, but the whole situation made it just a little bit awkward.

"There's no comparison, huh?" He broke the silence she hadn't realized had fallen between them, and she turned to meet his gaze, a frown wrinkling her forehead slightly.

"The stars," he explained quickly, "the city lights screen them. I bet the sight from your tiny river town is much different than this."

"I had never seen anything like that before. It's breathtaking. I would spend hours on the balcony off my office, at times when I needed some time to think, just staring up at the stars." The lines from her scowl smoothened and she smiled fondly as she spoke.

In fact, the lantian night sky was so beautiful and had become so familiar to her that she could barely recognize the few faded dots winking tiredly in the dull blue curtain stretched over Washington.

He seemed to appreciate her smile, or so she thought when he returned it, a flicker of interest lightning in his eyes at her words. "I had a telescope back in Colorado Springs. I brought it with me when I moved, but I never used it." He shrugged lightly. "It wouldn't be the same."

"I don't find it difficult to believe that." She had stopped moving out of Washington to do some real stargazing the year she applied for her Ph.D. Her own telescope had been relegated, albeit reluctantly, to her mother's basement, where it still was, probably under a think layer of dust.

"I wonder where the Pegasus Galaxy is." Jack mused, smiling softly. He was looking at her almost expectantly and she didn't know what to make of it.

She guessed her observation had been rather accurate when she had compared Jack with the exuberant Major Sheppard. Both unreadable to her, at times they seemed to see right through her and to the center of her soul.

"I don't have any real orientation points here," she started, taking the occasion to look away from him, "but it's almost midnight and we're in October, so it should be up there, somewhere above us. That's very approximate, but it's better than nothing."

She lifted her arm and pointed straight over her head. There weren't visible stars in that portion of the sky and a strange weight settled in her stomach. Even the small comfort of the only tangible link she had with Atlantis at the moment had been taken away from her.

She closed her eyes for a brief moment and thought of Teyla and the responsibilities she had burdened the young woman with. She missed her terribly, too.

"You're better at this than I expected, Doctor." The good-natured teasing in the use of her title wasn't lost on her, and she replied in kind.

"I know my astronomy, General."

A warm hand landed on her naked shoulder and squeezed gently. "Have faith."

Her head snapped towards him and, as she did so, Elizabeth was still unsure whether the gesture had been triggered by the physical contact or his words.

"Now that doesn't sound much like Jack O'Neill, does it?" That didn't sound much like i she /i had imagined Jack O'Neill to be, she corrected herself mentally. Come to think of it, she didn't really know the man all that well.

"It started sounding like him when I stopped accompanying my team on missions. I just had to sit in a cramped office and hope they all came back in one piece. I'm sure you're familiar with the feeling."

Her voice stuck in her throat, Elizabeth acknowledged his words with a slight nod.

"I would gladly give up my job if it meant seeing them all again alive and well." As if drawn by magnetic force, her gaze moved again to where the Pegasus Galaxy was supposed to be, according to her calculations.

Jack granted himself the permission to squeeze her shoulder once again before letting his hand drop from her shoulder and he whispered: "I know."

The murmur was drowned in the loud buzz of the D.C traffic, still thick at this time of the night, but not before Elizabeth had the chance to recognize herself in the depth of feelings held by that simple phrase.

Jack was still standing so close to her that she almost didn't resist the urge to lean back against him to find the comfort they both needed.

"Let's get you back to the hotel." He walked out of her personal space and opened the door for her.

Elizabeth smiled lightly at him as she stepped back into the large meeting room.

"Oh, and Doctor? Make sure you learn all the names of the Pegasian stars by heart, because when I decide it's time to visit your wee little town, I will expect you to teach me some serious local astronomy."


End file.
